A targeted final check is a short, ordered set of questions you ask your own answer in the last few minutes. It works because you look for specific things instead of rereading and hoping that errors will announce themselves.
This lesson closes the drafting skills in timed reading and writing. It follows recovering from a drifting paragraph and depends on having saved the time, as in allocating effort.
What goes on a targeted checklist?
Keep the list to three passes, each with one purpose.
- Task pass. Reread the task words, then your first and last paragraph. Does the form, reader and purpose still match?
- Ending pass. Does the last line leave the reader where you planned, or does it stop mid-thought?
- Habit pass. Scan once for your own three most frequent errors.
Your habit list must come from your marked work. One student mixes up their and there. Another writes comma splices.
A third forgets the verb in long sentences. Generic lists are weaker than a list of three you have earned.
Worked example
Student’s own habit list (original): (1) subject and verb agreement, (2) comma splices, (3) missing full stop at the end of paragraphs.
Draft paragraph written under time pressure:
The benefits of a rest day is clear, students return on Monday with more energy. Their are also fewer mistakes in Monday homework
Pass 1, task. The task was a speech for teachers, but this is written like a report. The final check should flag that the tone needs a direct address: “You will see the difference.”
Pass 2, ending. The paragraph ends without a full stop and without a closing thought. Add a full stop and a last sentence that returns to the request.
Pass 3, habits.
- Agreement: “benefits … is” should be “benefits … are”.
- Comma splice: “is clear, students return” joins two complete sentences with a comma. Use a full stop or a semicolon.
- Spelling: “Their are” should be “There are”.
Checked version:
The benefits of a rest day are clear. Students return on Monday with more energy, and there are also fewer mistakes in their homework. You will see the difference in the first lesson of the week.
The checklist found four fixes quickly, because each pass asked one question.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to reread from the start for meaning, which feels productive but catches little.
Mistaken check: reading the whole answer quietly in your head at normal speed.
Your brain reads what it meant to write, not what is on the page, so the missing word and the comma splice are filled in automatically.
The correction is to check backwards and locally. Read the last sentence first, then the one before it. Slowing down and breaking the order exposes the errors that a smooth reread hides.
Check yourself
1. Correct this sentence using your checklist: Each of the students have a locker, but nobody use them.
Show answer
“Each of the students has a locker, but nobody uses it.” “Each” and “nobody” are singular, so the verbs become “has” and “uses”, and the object becomes “it” to match.
2. Why check the task before the spelling?
Show answer
A well-spelled answer in the wrong form or for the wrong reader is still the wrong answer, and form and purpose are usually easier to fix quickly than a whole paragraph of small errors. Fix the largest mismatch first.
3. Write your own three-item habit list using errors you have actually made. If you cannot name three, say where you would find them.
Show answer
Your list will be personal. If you cannot name three, open two or three marked pieces or teacher comments and note the corrections that appear more than once. A list of three, each with an example, is enough.
Where this leads next
The final lesson in this module looks at unfinished answers: review an unfinished answer without grade prediction. Try a full run in the timed reading and writing practice set, and keep your repeat errors in the mistake log and retest queue.
A habit list is most useful when a teacher has seen enough of your writing to spot the pattern. That is one of the things we do in online one-to-one English First Language tuition.